Originally Posted by
bragi
Everything is political whether you want it to be or not. Everything you do, every choice you make, communicates to your neighbors who you are. If you show up somewhere on a bike, that sends a very different message than showing up in a diesel F-350 pickup truck. Of course, perceptions depend on your audience, too. In rich neighborhoods in Seattle, if you ride a bike, and the person who sees you isn't into bikes, you're just an annoying, holier-than-thou, self-involved dork. In many parts of Kentucky, the same exact person, on the same bike, would be regarded as simply a DUI loser.
I was just in Tukwila(think I spelled it right)doing a trade show, and wore my Café Roubaix bicycle shop tee shirt while setting up. An astonishing amount of people felt like telling me about how much they hate cyclists, with stories about how they take up the road, are arrogant and self centered, and the like. Many were from Portland. It was a crowd that was rather well to do for the most part. I actually ended up going back to my room and changing shirts, something that I never expected to do, but I planned on selling to these same people during the show. I told them I was a DUI loser from Arkansas and they did not have to worry about me on "their" roads.
